The legend goes, The cow kicked over a lantern, the lantern set fire to the shed, and the shed set fire to the rest of Chicago. Although, Mrs. Patrick O`Leary swore under oath that she never took a lantern to the shed on the night of Sunday, October 8, 1871, many witnesses verified the ramshackle building on the West Side as the starting point of the fire. In Chicago, it had been a very dry autumn. Furthermore, nearly all the 300,000 people of the city lived in wooden houses. The fire department was aware of the danger as there had been a ....